Guardians Haul & Ghostbusters Reboot: August 4, 2014

Ghostbusters 3 Is Happening. But The Cast... Might Surprise You

Money Tree: Marvel’s newest — and arguably best — movie clobbered the weekend box office by raking in over $94 million. Guardians of the Galaxyshattered the previous record for an August opening set in 2007 by The Bourne Ultimatum ($69.3 million).

Who knew @JamesGunn was the basterd son of George Lucas and Tarantino!? Guardians of the Galaxy was EPIC. #GOTG#THICKE

What makes this haul remarkable is that it’s basically on par with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and is off to a much stronger start than Thor: The Dark World. Both of those movies had strong existing fan bases and were building off earlier successes. Nobody really knew what to expect with Guardians. And yes, there will be a sequel — possibly several? Director James Gunn had this to say on Facebook:

"And, of course, I'm not really saying goodbye as, while many of you have been enjoying the film, I've spent this weekend hard at work on the sequel. I couldn't help myself! The results are nice but it's really the creative process I love and that keeps me going. I'm on fire with this thing! The Guardians have so many hardships and heartaches and triumphs ahead of them, and I can't wait to share them with all of you."

Crossing The Streams: Does the long-awaited Ghostbusters movie finally have a director? THR is reporting that Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) has made it to the top of Sony’s list. Feig, who also directed The Heat and is currently helming Spy (his third collab with Melissa McCarthy), has worked on a long list of solid TV comedies (Arrested Development, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, The Office) and should bring a steady hand to the project. The biggest news, however, is that the movie will be a reboot with a possibly all-female cast. Given Feig’s history, we wouldn’t be surprised to see McCarthy land a role as one of the paranormal investigators. Original cast member Dan Aykroyd is set to return in some capacity. Production is set to start early next year. For the record, we think Aubrey Plaza would kill it.

Invisible Woman: A lot of people were surprised that The Fantastic Four didn’t have any presence at this year’s SDCC. Fans are very curious to know what Josh Trank has in store for the reboot, but we haven’t heard a peep. And now shooting has wrapped:

Jurassic Fashion: Paleontologists from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences are reporting that they’ve discovered a dinosaur with not only feathers, but scales as well. Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus was about three feet in length and somewhat resembled a giant chicken. This discovery is important because it may signal that dinosaurs may have had feathers from the very beginning. Hope you’re taking notes, Jurassic World. [Science]

Told You So: Kids, listen up. A new study from none other than Oxford University has shown that video game-playing “for less than an hour a day is linked with better-adjusted children and teenagers.” These moderate gamers were better adjusted than kids who didn’t play any video games at all. The bad news: Kids who played for more than three hours a day or more were not as well adjusted. The one-hour-a-day gamers had “the highest levels of sociability and were most likely to say they were satisfied with their lives. They also appeared to have fewer friendship and emotional problems, and reported less hyperactivity than the other groups.” The researchers also suggested that “influence of video games on children, for good or for ill, is very small” when compared to family life, relationships and socio-economic status.” [Eurekalert]